For the Church only one thing matters and that is that we have a revelation of Jesus , and if the truth must be told this need is not only true for the Church but also for the nations of the earth! It is only as the nations see the crucified Christ alive and in his glory  that they can live!

Jesus is the desire of the nations, He is the satisfaction of the hunger and thirst in the hearts of men, the woman at the well of Samaria was looking for her thirst to be quenched, that inner restless that drove her to find peace in the embrace of men, but it was not until she met the Man that her thirst for peace was satisfied.

In John’s gospel there is a remarkable story that illustrates this

Now there were certain Greeks among those who came up to worship at the feast.  Then they came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and asked him, saying, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”

Philip came and told Andrew, and in turn Andrew and Philip told Jesus.

John 12:20-22

It is Jesus the world wants to see, not our religion or our ornate structures but Jesus the son of God, but how can we take them to Jesus when we ourselves have lost sight of him?

This is why it is crucial that the Church rediscovers Jesus in order that it may reveal Him to the world.

Jesus said it is only when he is lifted up above all the earth that he will draw all men unto himself, while this was speaking principally about his crucifixion, it could also point to the truth that it is only when Jesus is higher than all our politics, denominational pride, self seeking and vain glories that he can truly be seen.

Jesus is the light of the world but for light to be seen it must be placed in a visible place above and over every obstructions. The task of the Church today is to put Jesus over and above all.

There is a path back for the recovery of the sight of the Church and that path leads again to Jesus who came to give sight to the blind! The very proof that the Church can see will be its revelation of Jesus, Jesus will be very much alive to the believer in a personal intimate way

Acknowledge your blindness

The first step to healing and recovery of sight is to acknowledge that we are blind! This is so simple but it is often the most difficult step, it is a small thing for the Lord to heal our blindness but how can he do this if we do not agree with him that we are blinded by religion, fear, pride, and a host of other things!

The Pharisees had a very hard time with this, they were the custodians of the law, well versed in scriptures and in the history of the Jews, how could they be blind? But Jesus said to them, those things they prided themselves in were indeed the source of their blindness!

It takes great humility to acknowledge a spiritual condition but this humility is the necessary prerequisite to receiving sight.

God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble; Jesus is the grace of God in bodily form.

The Pharisees could point to their ornate temple, elaborate structures and great learning as proof of their standing before God but they forgot that by the works of the law shall no man be justified before God.

No one stands before the Lord on his own merits, in fact the clearer you see the Lord the more conscious you really become for your personal lack of qualification to stand before you, thank God Jesus came for the unqualified and the unworthy!

There is something that humility does for you

Apollos was a man who received insight into the ways of Jesus Christ just because of a heart that was humble enough to acknowledge its limitations. The bible describes him as one who was eloquent and mighty in the scriptures (Old Testament) but knew only the way of John, he knew next to nothing about who Jesus was and what he came to do that is until two not so eloquent people Aquila & Priscilla his wife took him aside and expounded the way of Jesus to him more perfectly.

Now a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures, came to Ephesus. This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things of the Lord, though he knew only the baptism of John. 26 So he began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Aquila and Priscilla heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately.

Acts 18:24-26

Go to Jesus and follow His teachings

Anyone who has had a revelation of Jesus as he is will realize quickly that the words of Jesus are to be elevated above the words of any other writer in scripture and that only by looking at the teachings of the scriptures through the words of Jesus will we have perfect understanding of the word of God.

There is so much unnecessary confusion today about what Paul taught etc but the confusion is only because the words of the Apostle Paul are taken out of the context of Jesus and his words.

The Apostle Paul was an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, in other words He was sent by the Lord Jesus, so it makes sense to look at what the words of the messenger through the words of the One who sent him!

Jesus is greater than Moses, Elijah and all the Old Testament Prophets, He is the son of God, the express image of God’s person and the brightness of His glory, this was what Paul was teaching in the book of Hebrews, Jesus is above all and He is all in all! Glory to God!

Jesus commanded the first apostles to

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you;

Matt 28:19-20

This was the foundation of the teaching and preaching ministries of the apostles. Please understand this, the bible is a rich book, a living book with answers to every human dilemma and wisdom from God to meet every situation, it is a book full of principles, values and precepts that people; Christian and even non Christian have drawn from for ages, because of this inherent capacity in the bible many times it is possible to concentrate so much on drawing from the wisdom within that we lose sight of the One who made that wisdom available.

When this happens, it is only a matter of time before the truth leads us into great error. The One of whom we speak is greater than the wisdom of Solomon, and his preaching greater than that of Jonah, Jesus is the living embodiment of the wisdom and power of God.

His wisdom is the wisdom of the ages and is incomparable to none. He is not just another teacher of wisdom; His teaching is wisdom and life and is incomparable to any other.

None of the great teachers and prophets of the bible could ever say to another ‘follow me and I will make you’ they couldn’t, how could they? They were men, yes anointed of the Holy Spirit but even in this place of their anointing their humanity still shone through. Moses lost his temper, Abraham lied, Elijah gave in to depression and fled from a woman and David committed adultery and a murder to cover it up! Need I go on?

They all were men of God but Jesus was God in man!

The coming revival

All over the world, the Church is crying for revival and it is coming, God has answered that prayer but this revival will be like no other, it will be a revival of the revelation of Jesus in the believer and our union with Him. In this great work of the Spirit, the common thread will be that these ones have seen Jesus and have been transformed by what they saw! Titles, ecclesiastical positions, denominational ties will be of secondary value, it will be Jesus Christ and Him alone.

Nobody has a revelation of Jesus and remains the same, once you see him; you will never be satisfied with religious form. One of the great things that have shaped my life is this one truth Jesus saved me, it was not a creed or even a prayer that did it, it was a living person. The Holy Spirit impressed this in my heart and it birthed in me a hunger to know Jesus the man not Christianity the religion.

You do not need to see Jesus with your physical eyes, but you need to see him with the eyes of your heart, in the inner person, that is where he lives.

When you see him then His words will become food and drink to you, a light on your path and a guide to your feet.

It will be much easier to submit to his lordship because He is real to you, then what you have will no more be a religion but a life and out of there a relationship. It is from this place that ministry becomes the outflow of life and not the reenactment of a set of learned principles and forms.

New or Old Testament Ministry?

Many ministers today function like ministers in the Old Testament functioned but Jesus brought a new dynamic into ministry, he modeled a different type of ministry, a ministry of life where it was not just that He was anointed but that the One who did the works was living in him and working through Him. No ministry before now modeled this type of ministry, not even Moses as great as his ministry was.

The ministry of the spirit that Jesus modeled was based on an entirely different and superior platform that that which any other had ministered from. It was the ministry of the Son not just of the servant; it was a ministry that was born out of a union between the Father and the Son by the Spirit.

Even so today the ministry of the believer will be a ministry born out of the union between Jesus and the believer by the Spirit so that the words of Jesus which he spoke shall be fully manifest

“A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also.  At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.

John 14:19-21